Canal Dock Boathouse at New Haven's Long Wharf close to completion

The front entrance to the Boathouse at Canal Dock on Long Wharf Drive that will be finished this summer.

The front entrance to the Boathouse at Canal Dock on Long Wharf Drive that will be finished this summer.

Photo: Mary O'Leary / Hearst Connecticut Media

Photo: Mary O'Leary / Hearst Connecticut Media

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The front entrance to the Boathouse at Canal Dock on Long Wharf Drive that will be finished this summer.

The front entrance to the Boathouse at Canal Dock on Long Wharf Drive that will be finished this summer.

Photo: Mary O'Leary / Hearst Connecticut Media

Canal Dock Boathouse at New Haven's Long Wharf close to completion

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NEW HAVEN — For the first time in decades, the city again feels connected to its harbor as a place for recreational boating and more as the Boathouse at Canal Dock heads into the final stages of construction.

“We are really excited that we are on the last leg of this journey to get this facility built,” Donna Hall, senior project manager at City Plan, said as she greeted city, state and federal officials, as well as the architects, planners and coordinators, some of whom have stuck with it for almost two decades.

The two-story building has a lower floor that will be used for boating activities and storage, while the upper floor has several meeting areas, including a 3,600-square-foot function room with a view of the harbor that Hall and others expect will host conventions and weddings as a destination venue.

The dock itself off the first floor will have a power connection so Arts & Ideas and other cultural groups can stage concerts and events.

“It’s a space where recreation, culture, history, art and education all come together at this amazing location with its great views,” Hall told the crowd.

The project is mitigation for the loss of Yale University’s George Adee Memorial Boathouse, which was razed in 2007 to open a space for one of the new piers needed for construction of the Interstate 95 Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge.

The large contingent of guests invited to a recent “progress walk,” all wearing hard hats at what is still a construction site, saw the original pieces salvaged from Adee incorporated into the new structure.

There are multiple rust-colored, terra cotta bulldog heads, symbols of the Yale mascot, greeting them on the walls. Finials and obelisks have been repurposed, while one of the rooms also features the fireplace mantel from the clubhouse at Adee, all part of the history of Yale’s rowing program.

Mayor Toni Harp and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, as they took the tour, mugged it up with a pose by a bulldog.

Hall said the fireplace restoration is just one example of the quality work by “amazing craftspeople.”

“ ... as I talk to the people who are really getting this done, so many of them are New Haven workers, New Haven residents. It just goes to show what New Haven can create,” Hall said.

She said that clubhouse recreation in particular gives a feeling for what the original Adee was like.

“Do you think they had women in these rooms?” the congresswoman asked. “We didn’t see any in the pictures,” Hall answered.

The National Historic Preservation Act requires federal projects, such as the Pearl Harbor Bridge, to “mitigate any adverse effects on historic properties,” which is the basis for the U.S. investment in the new boathouse.

“It is one of the most significant efforts anywhere associated with a highway project. It will pay incredible dividends years forward for residents of the community,” Deputy Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli said.

He said he has been told it is a model of building appropriately within an historic context.

Most of the walls upstairs are still empty, but they will be covered with interpretive displays on the history of the harbor, Adee and rowing, as well as the Connecticut Freedom Trail.

One of the most dramatic pieces is the 35- by 20-foot terra cotta frame from the original portal to Adee. There will be a replica of the doors, while contractors are also recreating the oak staircase. Timbers from Adee can also be seen at the ceilings in several spaces.

Universal Preservation provided the craftsmen who are replicating some of the artifacts.

Hall said the boathouse, located in New Haven Harbor, is directly north of the historic Long Wharf Pier.

It is the same space that was the terminus of the Farmington Canal Line and the original Canal Dock shipping pier that was in place from the early 19th century into the 1940s. Cargo would be transferred from steam ships or sailing ships onto barges to continue up the canal line.

It is now the terminus for the Farmington Canal Greenway and the East Coast Greenway, with a protected cycle track in front of the boathouse that will eventually go over the Tomlinson Bridge.

The boathouse can be reached by cyclists and pedestrians. For events, the city has been in touch with the Fusco Corp., which is located close by on Long Wharf Drive, to use its garage for valet parking. Talks have also been ongoing to lease land on the other side of I-95 from the state Department of Transportation for about 50 cars.

Front and center in the lineup of guests was DeLauro, who was instrumental in landing much of the federal funds.

“It is so excited to see this boathouse from I-95,” DeLauro said as she began the tour.

The structure “replicates the form and function of the old boathouse” as a way of making up for the loss of that historic resource, Hall said.

The Adee Boathouse opened in 1911 but by 1923, Yale had built a replacement in Derby on the Housatonic River. By the 1950s, it was sold and served as an office building until it was demolished.

Hall said the project also mitigates the loss of public access to the area, which the city has experienced over decades, and makes a connection between the downtown central business district and the waterfront.

The high-tech platform that provides about an acre site for the boathouse itself was built by Camputaro Construction and completed in 2015. It is designed by Langan Engineering and Environmental Services and Spiegel Zamecnik & Shah, Inc. to withstand a 100-year storm with steel pilings driven 100-feet into the harbor floor.

The contractor for the boathouse itself is Nosal Construction; Gregg Wies and Gardner are the architects.

On this tour, off the main entrance, the guests were led into a large boat bay where dragon boats, kayaks, rowing shells, paddle boards and other non-motorized boats will be stored. As designed by Langan Engineering, the room has break-away walls which will allow any flooding to pass through without damaging the structure itself.